Roger Williams University Parkour - Formal Statement

On December 10th, an article about RWU Parkour was written by Hawks Herald (our student run
newspaper). The article was poorly written and did not correctly depict our views of Parkour. The
majority of the quotes were fabricated to fulfill publication deadlines and were not official statements
from RWUPK members. It is also evident that the author of the article did not understand or fully grasp
the true philosophy of Parkour. There is no “faith” involved. There is no “luck” involved. There isn’t
even a “risk” involved when training properly. What RWUPK does believe in is practice, repetition, and
slow continued learning. We hold bi-weekly Parkour sessions to train and we always encourage new
members to come and learn with us. We practice something a million times indoors while using mats
and spotters before trying something out in a more urban environment. The article was obviously
written to make RWUPK appear more dangerous and risky for the sole purpose of getting more views. If
any of you came to train with any of us you would quickly come to realize that we are practically a family
and that we are all trying to continually better ourselves both physically and mentally. Our banner
contains a quote by David Belle which states that, "Obstacles are found everywhere, and in overcoming
them we nourish ourselves." We think that this article is one of these obstacles. The media in general is
a hard obstacle for anyone who practices Parkour to overcome. We also have to be very weary of the
fact that how we portray ourselves to the media is very often not how they choose to see us. We need
to be more assertive in telling them not only what Parkour is about, but what it isn’t about. Maybe then
will they fully grasp the philosophy or Parkour and begin shedding some positive light on all of us. With
that said, RWUPK would like to formally apologize on behalf of this terribly written article and hopes
that the Parkour community understands our dilemma and that you will all see us for who we really are.

Respectfully,

Samy Ramadan

Roger Williams University Parkour